5

7

In the last few days there has been a lot of publicity concerning nuclear power plants. A US Congressman promoting investment in nuclear even compared the risk of a nuclear power plant collapse to that of a bridge collapse, where I'd say the risk and amount of damage each can do is not equal. I would say the financial and nuclear industries are ramping up the public relations spending to do some damage control. [more]

Recs

9

On February 4th, I wrote a post titled "Don't Cows and Chickens Have to Eat?" which basically said that the corn futures were in a speculative bubble, being pumped for profit by people who had invested 6 months earlier. [more]

9

House Republicans voted in lockstep this afternoon to protect corporate welfare for Big Oil, even as they call for draconian cuts to programs that everyday Americans depend on each day. As the House of Representatives moved toward approving a stopgap resolution to avert a government shutdown for another two weeks, Democrats offered a motion to recommit that would have stripped the five largest oil companies of taxpayer subsidies, saving tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. The motion failed on a vote of 176-249, with all Republicans voting against (approximately a dozen Democrats joined the GOP). A similar vote two weeks ago to recoup $53 billion in taxpayer funds from Big Oil was also voted down, largely along party lines. The former CEO of Shell Oil, John Hoffmeister, recently said Big Oil doesn’t need subsidies “in face of sustained high oil prices.” From 2005 to 2009, the largest oil companies have made a combined $485 billion in profits.[more]

12

A public union employee, a Tea Party activist and Charles Koch are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle. Koch takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the Tea Partier and says, “watch out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie.”